Scrub-a-dub-dub

If you ever want folks to look at you like you've gone off the deep end, tell them you make your own soap! (Well, admittedly, that's only one way...)
Quite a few years back, a friend of mine taught me how to make soap. The ingredients can be as simple or complex as you choose. I've done the more elaborate but still prefer the plain and simple.
Over the years I have also discovered different methods. My latest and most favorite is "blender soap". Unlike long ago when you combined the ingredients and stirred and stirred until you thought your arm would fall off, blender soap lets the machine do all the work.
Does that make it cheating? Does it make it any less home made? I'll admit that I have a problem with the soap kits you find in most craft stores. They usually consist of a blob of glycerin that you simply melt down and pour into molds. That to me doesn't count as home made.
I still prefer the science end of it. I enjoy taking the lye and the oil, mixing them together and have the soap magic happen! (The actual word for that is saponification) And the beauty of the process is that when the magic happens, the soap has lots of glycerin in it! Nowadays when commercial soap is made they extract the glycerin. That is then turned into glycerin bars that sell for much more than "plain" soap. That helps to explain why store bought soap can be very drying on your skin.
Homemade soap contains wonderful things like olive oil or coconut oil and the glycerin that occurs naturally! And unlike storebought soap, your skin feels clean when you rinse it off, not like you have just applied a layer of something.
I suppose I should climb off my soap box for now. If any of you are interested in trying a bar, just let me know!